SINGAPORE (AP) -- Trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama won't be put before Congress until it grapples first with President Barack Obama's pressing legislative goals, the U.S. commerce secretary said Friday.
Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said Obama has an ambitious high-priority legislative agenda focusing on health care, financial regulation and alternative energy.''Trade agreements are going to have to wait,'' he said at a luncheon hosted by the American Chamber of Commerce in Singapore. ''Right now, the administration is focused on a very aggressive and very tight legislative agenda.''
The lack of progress on a trade agreement likely will be a sore point during Obama's stop in Seoul next week during an eight-day trip to Asia that began Thursday in Japan and will also take him to Singapore and China.
South Korea and the U.S. did $84.8 billion in bilateral trade in 2008, making Washington South Korea's fourth-biggest trading partner after China, the European Union and Japan. The 27-nation EU is the largest foreign investor in South Korea, with $98.4 billion in trade last year.
In 2007, South Korea and the U.S. signed a deal to slash tariffs and other barriers to trade. However, the deal has yet to be ratified by U.S. lawmakers amid concerns about South Korea's automobile market.
How fragile is the vaunted Obama coalition that he can't offend them over a no-brainer like a free trade deal with South Korea?
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